System and method for selling intangible property

ABSTRACT

A method comprises analyzing the psychology of a typical consumer and defining first key stages wherein customers drop out and second key stages wherein sales could be maximized.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/500,440 filed Sep. 4, 2003, which is hereinincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Insurance agents spend the majority of their time tracking,following-up, and processing their sales and very little time actuallyselling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present system and method was developed specifically to increase thevolume of insurance an agent could sell. It applies equally to any otherintangible product such as mortgages, even though the explanation belowfocuses on insurance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method according to an embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, part of the development of this system and methodincludes analyzing 100 the psychology of the typical consumer anddefining 110 key stages where customers drop out and other key stageswhere sales could be maximized. This system and method addresses thelengthy process required to buy life insurance by establishing whatevents must occur to move a customer through the process as quickly aspossible with as little of effort by the selling agent.

The disclosed system and method is all inclusive for tracking andmanagement of leads, including how leads are purchased, entered,distributed, emailed, monitored, and completely managed as they flowthrough the sales cycle.

All sales of intangible property such as life insurance follows the samegeneral sales cycle from start to finish. A lead is imported or enteredinto the system. The prospective customer is then contacted, given aquote, and often agrees to purchase a policy. The customer must thencomplete an application that is specific to the state and company forwhich they are seeking insurance or other intangible product. Thecustomer is also required to complete a medical exam.

Upon completing both the medical exam and application, the customer'sinformation is sent off to the life insurance company where it will bereviewed by an underwriter. The underwriter uses predeterminedunderwriting guidelines to evaluate the customer's risk of death andplace them into an appropriate rating classification. The ratingclassification determines the price for insurance the customer will bepaying. Upon approval of the policy, the insurance company issues apolicy and forwards it to the agent. The agent is then responsible forgetting that policy to the customer and collecting any deliveryrequirements the insurance company has requested. The agent submits thedelivery requirements to the insurance company and then follows up withthe customer periodically.

Sales Cycle Breakdown:

New Lead—Gold, Silver, Bronze

New Applicant

Medical Complete

Paperwork Complete

Underwriting

Approved

Policy Sent

Client

Future Call Back

Dead File

Sales Cycle Definitions: New Lead

Someone that has requested an agent to call them and give them a quotefor insurance.

New Applicant

Someone that has agreed to purchase a policy and you have mailed theapplication out to them and ordered the medical exam.

Medical Complete

The customer has completed the medical exam but you are still waitingfor their application.

Paperwork Complete

Opposite of medical complete. They have completed the application buthave not completed the medical exam.

Underwriting

Person has completed both the medical and application and is beingreviewed by an underwriter for the coverage they are requesting.

Approved

Policy has been approved and the agent is awaiting the policy from theinsurance company.

Policy Sent

Policy was received and mailed out to the customer.

Client

Policy was successfully delivered and all money and signatures tocomplete the transaction were completed.

Future Call Back

Someone that is a prospect in the future for insurance. Usually youspoke to them and they asked you to contact them at a later date.

Dead File

Someone you were either unable to contact or after contacting them youdetermined that they are not going to be a prospect for the insurance.

This system and method additionally includes several reporting featuresfor agents and agencies to spot problem areas in their business. Thesystem allows for users to run reports on their business to see averagecase sizes, number of people in each sales stage, and graphical analysisof a user's book of business.

1. (canceled)
 2. A sales tracking system for managing the status of asales cycle of intangible property, the system comprising: at least oneprocessor; at least one input device; at least one display device; andat least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions,which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at leastone processor to operate with the at least one input device and the atleast one display device to: (a) store a plurality of states of thesales cycle, the states including at least a contact state, an agree topurchase state, an application complete state, a medical informationreceived state, and a client state; (b) enable a user to input dataabout a potential customer; (c) if the user inputs data about thepotential customer, store an indication that the potential customer isassociated with the contact state; (d) if the potential customer agreesto purchase the intangible property, store an indication that thepotential customer is associated with the agree to purchase state; (e)if the potential customer provides a completed application, store anindication that the potential customer is associated with theapplication complete state; (f) receive data indicative of medicalinformation collected about the potential customer; (g) if the dataindicative of the medical information collected about the potentialcustomer is received, store an indication that the potential customer isassociated with the medical information received state; and (h)determine whether the potential customer has been associated with eachof the contact state, the agree to purchase state, the applicationcomplete state, and the medical information received state, wherein: (i)upon determining that the potential customer has been associated witheach of the contact state, the agree to purchase state, the applicationcomplete state, and the medical information received state,automatically store an indication that the potential customer is in theclient state and display an indication to provide the potential customerwith the intangible property, and (ii) upon determining that thepotential customer has not been associated with each of the contactstate, the agree to purchase state, the application complete state, andthe medical information received state, repeat (a) to (h).
 3. The salestracking system of claim 2, which includes storing a subset completeindication in association with the potential customer if the potentialcustomer has been associated with some but not all of the contact state,the agree to purchase state, the application complete state, and themedical information received state.
 4. The sales tracking system ofclaim 2, which includes storing a subset complete information inassociation with the potential customer if the potential customer hascompleted some but not all actions required to be associated with atleast one of the contact state, the agree to purchase state, theapplication complete state, and the medical information received state.5. The sales tracking system of claim 4, wherein when executed by the atleast one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at leastone processor to operate with the at least one input device and the atleast one display device to trigger at least one action based on thestored subset complete indication.
 6. The sales tracking system of claim2, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality ofinstructions cause the at least one processor to operate with the atleast one input device and the at least one display device to trigger atleast one action based on at least one selected from the groupconsisting of: an amount of time spent in one of the plurality of statesof the sales cycle and a change from a first one of the plurality ofstates of the sales cycle to a second one of the plurality of states ofthe sales cycle.
 7. The sales tracking system of claim 6, wherein theaction is directed to a first user and not a second user based on a roleassociated with the first user.
 8. The sales tracking system of claim 6,wherein the action includes associated information based on the changefrom the first one of the plurality of sales states of the sales cycleto the second one of the plurality of states of the sales cycle.
 9. Thesales tracking system of claim 8, wherein the associated informationincludes at least one selected from the group consisting of: a source ofa lead, an identification of the user, an intangible product thepotential customer is most likely to purchase, and a process thepotential customer is most likely to complete.
 10. The sales trackingsystem of claim 6, wherein the action includes at least one selectedfrom the group consisting of: automatically sending an email, displayinga message, instructing the user to make a telephone call, generating adocument, and creating a task.
 11. The sales tracking system of claim 2,which is implemented as a customizable rules engine.
 12. The salestracking system of claim 2, wherein when executed by the at least oneprocessor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least oneprocessor to operate with the at least one input device and the at leastone display device to automatically generate at least one report basedon at least one selected from the group consisting of: a presence in oneof the plurality of states of the sale cycle, an amount of time spent inone of the plurality of states of the sale cycle, and a change from afirst one of the plurality of states of the sale cycle to a second oneof the plurality of states of the sale cycle.